(photo taken from ufc.com)
Nate Marquardt can’t stop thinking about his last fight with current middleweight champ
Anderson Silva and how he was defeated. Marquardt still feels that
he could have taken Silva out and he’ll keep fighting hard in order to get his
rematch.
“I should have won that fight. I made some mistakes and mentally I
wasn’t there like I should have been. I know I can beat that guy and I know
that I’ll be the champ eventually. That’s my goal is to get a rematch with Anderson."
However, the seven-time King of Pancrase will have work his way
up again. Next up is his battle against a very tough and experienced
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert. Thales Leites holds a 12-1 record, losing
only once to Martin Kampmann who is also expected to fight at the O2 arena this
Saturday at UFC 85.
Leites was expected to fight Marquardt at the "Ortiz vs. Shamrock 3: The Final
Chapter" event in October of 2006. Due to travel documentation issues,
the bout was canceled and they were never scheduled to fight until now.
After a year and a half, Marquardt seems extremely focused coming into this fight and hopes to defeat Leites in a
goal to pursue the middleweight championship belt once again.
Here’s what Marquardt had to say about his upcoming fight against Leites at UFC 85:
“I guess that’s been my strength, why I am a champion,
because I’m never going to accept defeat. I’m never going to accept people
saying that someone is better than me. I feel I’m the best and I have to go out
there and prove it. And if I get beaten, that doesn’t mean that the guy is
better than me, it just means that I made mistakes that I need to fix… Some
people have this saying. I think it’s from Carlson Gracie. ‘You hit him once
and he’s a brown belt. You hit him twice and he’s a purple belt. You hit him
again he’s a blue belt.’ That’s something you’ve got to get used to. You have
to work that into your game… Thales has been doing MMA long enough that he’s
started that. He’s not just a pure jiu-jitsu guy, but I have a lot more
experience in that area… I feel that I’ll be the No. 1 contender… Does that
mean that I’ll get a title shot right away? Not necessarily, but… that should
put me right at the No. 1 contender… Look for an exciting fight… I’m going to
go out and hit him with everything I have. I’m going to try and knock him out.
He’s a tough guy, but I think I can do it.”
(props to mmaweekly.com)
